Wednesday, April 21, 2010

As a fantasy book lover, I am well-acquainted with the "endless series." The stories wrapped in books sometimes as thick as 1,000 pages, novels that continue the stories into the 20th and 30th book. If you find the right ones, you can easily become addicted, waiting anxiously for the next, which sometimes won't come for years. Such is the way of it with the Mercedes Thompson series. I've blogged about a couple of her books, and just completed the next in line: Silver Borne.

Of course, she's back to being in trouble, after having borrowed a book from a half-fae in the last novel. The fae want it back, and they aren't stopping at much to get it, considering that it can be found easily in one of two ways: by fire or by death. The fae have never been known for their great appreciation of those so lowly as the non-fae, even a shape-shifter like Mercy, so Mercy's fighting for her life. To top off all of her troubles, her old friend Samuel is not himself-literally. After trying to commit suicide, this werewolf's wolf side decides to take over in order to insure survival, but as everyone knows, wolves are not cute little puppies, and werewolves are wolves' more dangerous cousins.

I loved this book, and read it every chance I got. Because it's the semester's end at my university, I couldn't read it as often as I wanted, so it took me nearly three days to finish, but I enjoyed every moment of it. Mercy is back to her awesome self, investigating her way through the complicated maze of fae and werewolf worlds. The way in which Briggs has built up such a rich other-world right beside our very own makes for some fascinating reading, as you view her intricate take on the whole werewolf/vampire/fae/Other storyline. It's not just spitting out the same old, same old. And as for the characters, they're changing in the way any true human would; showing their true colors, hiding others, and always shifting your viewpoint of who they really are and what part they play in the grand scheme of things in the series.

Once again, I will probably have to wait to read yet another installment. Cross your fingers I'll get to see it before next year!

Saturday, April 10, 2010

I know, two blogs in one day. But I forgot to mention my absolute love of these nifty little book covers by Vera Bradley (who also makes prints, bags, and other cute stuff). It all started when I visited my mother and saw an adorable quilt-like printed "notebook" only to find that it was a book cover, not a notebook! I got so excited over it *blush* that my mom actually gave it to me. She said she thought it was pretty, but she was nowhere near as ecstatic over it as I was.

Basically, it works as a book cover should. It lets you slip the front and back cover of a paperback book into little pockets , and it even has a ribbon bookmark. The cover protects your book from getting bent whilst traveling in your bag, or keeps crumbs from attaching to the unprotected soft shell, or - in my case- takes away the need to dog-ear pages. I love it, and use it on all my smaller paperback books. My only problem with it is that it only fits one size, small. A lot of my paperbacks and none of my hard-backs could possibly fit. But, it is tres adorable!

Sometimes, I find myself trying to be organized for the morning by choosing something to wear before I go to bed. Usually, this means grabbing the first shirt I like and deciding if I want to wear flip-flops or flats in the morning (I have a bunch of jeans, I just choose the most comfy of the available pairs). After choosing an outfit, which takes all of 30 seconds, I like to curl up under my comforter and read until I become drowsy enough to drift off to sleep. Currently, I am reading Mademoiselle Boleyn, by Robin Maxwell, a historical novel of Anne Boleyn. It begins telling her story at the age of 9, when she was sent with her sister to accompany to France the soon-to-be French queen Mary. This novel is amazingly eye-opening as to how very uncensored they were of things back in the time period, and how very corrupt, as well. It's a rather interesting, amusing, and dare I say shocking read.

But that is all beside the point. My point is, this morning I wanted to wear a particular pair of flip-flops, one's that I adore. Silver flip-flops made from duct tape, thanks to my very craft-y SO. :) So I chose a shirt specifically because it had silver lettering on it, to match the sandals. But I needed to wear a sweater of some type, considering I would be stuck at work, freezing, so I picked out my newest one, which is green and argyle. Um. . . not so coordinated? I tried to pull it all together by wearing a green barrette in my hair, however the green barrette has clovers on it, so maybe not so matchy-matchy? I think I may have failed at coordinating an outfit, a la Ugly Betty. I should stick to my tried and true method of "Does this fit? Will I be comfortable in it?" And ok, yeah, sometimes "Will I look cute?" does come into play. But it's worked, mostly, so far.